Seiji Ozawa had a fondness for more modern compositions; his efforts on this 1982 release showcase his versatility by recording one of the finest performances of The Four Seasons in history, and the standard by which many future recordings would come to be judged. With over 500,000 albums sold since its release, it’s no wonder that this recording would be chosen as one of the initial four vinyl releases by Craft Recordings. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl and pressed by Optimal in Germany.

Pianist Oscar Peterson and violinist Stephane Grappelli meet up for this Scandinavian concert. The "backup" crew (guitarist Joe Pass, bassist Niels Pedersen, and drummer Mickey Roker) isn't too bad either. In addition to a closing blues (which is highlighted by tradeoffs from Peterson and Grappelli), the quintet performs five veteran standards with creativity and swing.

Talking Back to the Night is the third solo studio album by English recording artist Steve Winwood. Released less than two years after the top 3 hit Arc of a Diver, it failed to see as much success as its predecessor, reaching #28 on the Billboard 200. "Valerie" was a minor hit in 1982, but when it and the title track were remixed and re-released in 1987 for Chronicles, the newer version of "Valerie" became a top 10 hit, while the remix of "Talking Back to the Night" hit the Billboard Hot 100, but failed to crack the Top 40. The track "Help Me Angel" was also remixed for Chronicles, and was then released for the first time as a single.

Phil Collins - Face Value (1981). Phil Collins' first solo album, 1981's Face Value, was a long time coming, but it proved worth the wait, both for the Genesis drummer/vocalist himself and fans of thoughtful, emotionally charged pop. He'd been wrestling with the idea of doing a solo record for years, finding great inspiration in the pain caused by an impending divorce and craving artistic independence after years of collaboration. Many of the songs ended up on Genesis' 1980 album Duke - and "Against All Odds" was pocketed for later use - but he kept enough to make an album that stands as a classic moment of '80s pop/rock. Collins produced the album himself and played keyboards and drums, calling in friends and the Earth, Wind & Fire horns to fill out the songs…

Self-described "rural folk piano" player George Winston was among the earliest and most successful proponents of the genre of contemporary instrumental music later dubbed new age.
Signing to the Windham Hill label, between 1980 and 1982 he recorded a trilogy of albums - Autumn, December, and Winter Into Spring - of impressionistic, seasonally themed piano musings that laid much of the groundwork for the new age boom to follow.
In a sense, this second seasonal album follows an opposite direction from Autumn, its hard, isolated notes and stop-and-start style gradually giving way from the stasis of winter to the growth and movement of spring. It's a good album for beginning your day.

Jean-Michel Jarre performed a handful of concerts in Peking and Shanghai in 1981, marking the first time that a modern Western musical artist had played in communist China. Sensing the historical importance of the event (and the career milestone it represented), a double album of live music from these concerts was released the following year as Les Concerts en Chine. The release is half musical travelogue (featuring new pieces presumably inspired by China) and half career retrospective, with faithful reproductions of excerpts from Equinoxe and Les Chants Magnetiques (Magnetic Fields) interspersed with new works and snippets of Chinese dialogue. There has always been a strong visual component to Jarre's live shows, which the listener is left out of on these recordings (small pockets of applause during some of the songs allude to the graphic goings-on), but even without the lights and lasers this is engaging stuff…

When Joshua Rifkin began recording Bach vocal works to demonstrate his one-singer-per-part thesis, he started not with the lightly scored early cantatas but rather with the Holy of Holies–the B-Minor Mass. (Don't accuse the man of starting small.) Predictably, outrage ensued: detractors far outnumbered supporters at the time (though this seems to be gradually changing). Musicology or not, Rifkin's approach works. Bach's florid vocal parts are far more negotiable for soloists than for chorus; period instruments never overwhelm the voices. Certainly the standard of baroque- instrument playing, particularly brass, has improved since 1980; but Rifkin's instrumentalists, especially woodwinds, are quite listenable.

Roland Romanelli is a French synthesist and composer, mainly known as arranger. During his career, he worked with Barbara, Rusty Egan, and other notable figures in popular music. He was an early adopter of the Fairlight system. Romanelli moved to Paris in 1966. He was a session player on accordion and keyboards for Barbara Brodi. He soon worked for other musicians including Charles Aznavour. In the late 1970s, he worked in the French space disco scene, and was a founding member of the popular band Space. He took up synthesizers, which helped his career grow in the 1980s. His 1982 album Connecting Flight was also released in the US on PolyGram Records.

Billy Idol is the eponymous debut studio album by English rock vocalist Billy Idol, released on 16 July 1982 by Chrysalis Records. After his departure from the band Generation X and the release of his first solo extended play, Don't Stop (1981), Idol began working on his debut album. Produced by Keith Forsey, Billy Idol is a rock album with strong influences of new wave music. Upon its release, the album received generally positive reviews from music critics and was a commercial success, peaking at number forty-five on the Billboard 200. Billy Idol was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Hot Space is the tenth studio album by the British rock band Queen. It was released on 21 May 1982 by EMI Records in the UK and by Elektra Records in the US. Marking a notable shift in direction from their earlier work, they employed many elements of disco, funk, rhythm and blues, dance and pop music on the album. This made the album less popular with fans who preferred the traditional rock style they had come to associate with the band. Queen's decision to record a dance-oriented album germinated with the massive success in the US of their 1980 hit "Another One Bites the Dust" (and to a lesser extent, the UK success of the song).